A Small Town with Big Ideas
In response to the lack of affordable housing in the town for low-income singles, families and seniors, in 2012 Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services opened a 30-unit housing project specifically for Dryden’s hidden Indigenous homeless population.
“In Dryden, there are some private sector landlords,” said Housing Services executive director Don McBain. “But if you look at the shape of their stock, it’s deplorable. And that was the only other affordable housing here.”
The main component of the Dryden project is a former convention centre-style building, once home to a training centre, now converted into 13 single room occupancy suites, and five one-bedroom lofts renting at $500/month for low-income seniors and singles.
Twelve two-to-three bedroom townhouses surround the building, renting at $750/month, utilities included, to families on income assistance or who are working poor. The majority of those families are single mom-led like Clayton’s.
The elders in the SROs are providing informal childcare, allowing parents to go to work, school, or run errands without their kids. In turn, “the children get a little bit more of their historical background, because it’s kind of lost to the rest of the community,” said McBain.
